In the jungle you must wait...until the dice read five or eight.

[dokoyou]

Who: Kokomi, Lumine, Diluc
What: Board game shenanigans with Team Vaporize
When: now
Where: Inside the board game jungle, barely surviving
Content Warnings: will update if they come



[ A board game! How novel! How exciting! And it's something that she can play without expending too much energy. Or so she thought. One dice roll and a rhyming couplet later and Kokomi is falling.

In that split second she assesses that she's in a jungle, it's warm and humid and oh! The floor is damp! By instinct, she calls upon Nereid's Ascension. But instead of letting her rise to the water's surface, she sinks. And sinks. And sinks further in the mud.

Logic says that this is quicksand and that she shouldn't struggle. But how will she even get out? There is no quicksand in Watatsumi so she never made a strategy for this. She should probably ask for help. But from who? She threw her dice first?

Ah well. She can sink and think in this mud pile while she waits. ]

Comments

[searingwing]

[Diluc has been inside the game for a little while. He’s been dodging his last challenge with his dice tucked into his pocket. It is by luck that he emerges from the trees in time to see Kokomi sink.

He sends Dellingr out. The dragon rushes forward, his wings covered in feathery scales. His face is more narrow, beak like at the front. He has a passing resemblance to StormTerror better known as Dvalin. He whips his tail out over the quick sand.] Grab Dellingr’s tail!

Don’t struggle. We will work together to get you out.

[traversal]

[ thinking won't help when you're dead in the sand, sis.

lumine, on the other hand, hasn't been in the jungle for long like kokomi, wandering around the place in search of an exit out. hence this random meet-up, emerging from the opposite end of the forest. almost immediately, she jumps into action, summoning a geo construct and tugging a vine hanging from one of the trees. ]

Here! [ she glances at diluc, giving him a slight nod as she tosses the vine towards kokomi, tying its other end to the construct. ] We'll pull you out together.

[dokoyou]

[ But what do they want Kokomi to do? Scream? Panic? She can never do that! Not in public, at least.

Obediently she grabs the tail of the dragon with one hand, and the vine with another. Isn't it great that she kept both hands above the quicksand because she was thinking? This is all part of her strategy. ]

You have my thanks, but please do not force yourselves.

[ Or this one of those "if you die in the game, you die in real life" types of situations. That's a popular light novel theme. ]

[searingwing]

Games here have a risk of a high price if we lose. [Diluc replies as he moves see where the game fell. Icy chains rise up all around him. The world seems a little darker around his body and the magic he unleashes snaps silently out. The chains wrap around the game board and pull it out of the quick sand in slow movements.

While Dellingr carefully keeps pace with Lumine's own pulling. He rumbles low and shakes his head and Diluc opens his mouth but no sound comes. Out he swallows and tries again.] While we get you out can you keep an eye on our surroundings? Listen for trouble? There's a hunter I've been dodging but he's rather good at tracking.

[traversal]

[ what.

lumine throws a look at diluc as she wraps the vine tightly around her hand and pulls it towards in time with dellingr, an expression of surprise and worry crossing her face. a hunter, he says, that he's been dodging—and while they're in the middle of a situation like this. that doesn't sound good or in any way helpful in their current circumstances. ]

How dangerous is this hunter, Master Diluc?

[ she needs to know, wordlessly summoning paimon to pay attention while she's busy hauling kokomi. if something comes up, they'll know. ]

And why is he hunting you?

[dokoyou]

If I were a hunter, I would choose this moment as the near perfect time to strike. The exact perfect time to strike would be the moment you pull me out.

[ She says, helpfully. And now that she's slightly freer than she was before, she summons bake kurage in case anyone gets attacked while rescuing her. ]

How do you know this hunter, Master Diluc?

[searingwing]

When I rolled my dice and was sucked into this realm he was there.

[Dellingr works slowly in time with Lumine. Diluc retrieves the game board and holds it close. His dice feel like they are trying to burn in his pocket.

But nothing is happening around them. The jungle is still the jungle. But now the game board is safe the dice that got them into this mess begin to rattle where ever they have them.

Got to roll those dice and keep moving on the board.]

I haven’t seen him since the giant frog tried to make trouble. So I can’t tell you if he was a construct or not. He didn’t speak at all.

[traversal]

[ giant frog ...

somehow, the story seems to get wilder and wilder with every word that comes out of his mouth, but then, the entire scenario they're currently in is pretty wild in itself as it is.

lumine simply focuses on getting kokomi back on solid ground, giving her a few more tugs. and hopefully, just in time too, when she's starting to hear pai hissing on her spot on top of her geo construct towards the direction of the trees, no doubt sensing some kind of danger approaching them. that's not good. ]

Ah, well. Some of the more dangerous creatures don't speak at all ... [ case in point: a lot of the bosses in teyvat. ] Are you still all right, Kokomi?

[dokoyou]

[ Thank Orobaxi that Kokomi is a Hydro user, she comes out as clean as she was coming in. What is mud. She pushes herself onto solid ground and immediately goes low, hiding behind a rock. ]

I can not tell for certain. [ She is probably fine, it's just mud. It's just that there seems to be more pressing matters at hand. ] Master Diluc, Traveler, I think you should get ready for a fight. I shall do my best to assist.

[ From a safe distance. She is squishy. ]

[searingwing]

Dellingr will stay with you then. If you need to, climb on his back. He will take to the sky whenever you need him to.

[Diluc readies himself by bringing his sword off his back. The massive black blade edged in edge seems to glow as he heats the edges of the metal.

But what comes out of the foliage is a long sticky tongue. A pair of massive frogs are partly hidden by the tree line. But they are visible. Dellingr stays where he is but he hisses low, wings flaring in a threat display.]